The Tent Dwellers

The Tent Dwellers is a book by Albert Bigelow Paine, chronicling his travels through inland Nova Scotia on a trout fishing trip with Dr. Edward "Eddie" Breck, and with guides Charles "the Strong" (Charlie Charlton of Milford, NS) and Del "the Stout" (Del Thomas of Milford, NS), one June in the early 1900s. Originally published in 1908, The story starts at what is now known as the Legendary Milford House; Renowned author Albert Bigelow Paine, (Mark Twain’s biographer), chronicled his first impression of the Milford House Lodge in his famous book, in the following way … "Then at last came a church, a scattering string of houses, a neat white hotel and the edge of the wilderness had been reached." Those travelling today from Annapolis Royal will witness little change in the scenery or the impact from this turn of the century description. The book takes place in what is now Kejimkujik National Park (or "Kedgeemakoogee", as Paine spelled it) and the adjacent Tobeatic Game Reserve. The Reserve later became the Tobeatic Wildlife Management Area, and in 1998 was included within the newly created Tobeatic Wilderness Area.

Paine was well known in American literary circles at the time, chiefly as the biographer of Mark Twain. Breck held a PhD, spoke five languages, and was listed in Who's Who in America.

The book chronicles a three-week fishing trip through central Nova Scotia, and is an excellent account of the unspoiled Nova Scotia wilderness that existed at the time, which has been largely diminished since. The group encounters moose (which Eddie tries to capture and bring back alive), beaver, and numerous trout, the first of which is now very scarce in the region, and legions of mosquitos, moose flies, black flies, noseeums, and midges, all of which are regrettably abundant to this day.

Many of the areas described in the book, then virtually unexplored and uncharted, are now well known to back-country campers in Kejimkujik Park and the Tobeatic Wilderness Area. The descriptions of the central Nova Scotia woods contained in the book are beautifully written and uncannily accurate, and while the trout which brought Paine and Breck to Nova Scotia are less abundant, due in part to acid rain and increased fishing pressure, they still provide good sport for anglers.

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